ὑστέρα

Forms

ῠ̔στέρᾱ (hustérā) f (genitive ῠ̔στέρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ustérā, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *udtéreh₂,^[1] originally the feminine of the comparative ὕστερος (hústeros) in its old sense "outer", perhaps used with a noun such as μήτρα (mḗtrā, “womb”).^[2][1][3] Beekes explains the meaning by a shift from "outer, protruding" to "belly"; a close cognate is Hesychius' ὕστρος (hústros, “belly”).^[2][3] With the suffix *-ero- instead of *-tero-, the same meaning appears in Sanskrit उदर (udára, “belly”), ὕδερος (húderos) and Latin uterus (“womb”).^[2][1] Chantraine doubts the link with Sanskrit उत्तर (úttara, “upper”) on grounds of meaning and suggests "the back of the womb, what lies behind", and finds Latin uterus difficult.^[4] The Etymologicum Magnum derived the name from the position of the organ, or from its producing its fruit only later (ὕστερον (hústeron, “later”)).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the plural in Herodotus and in the Hippocratic writings of the 5th century BC, meaning the womb.^[6][7][2]

Semantic evolution

The Hippocratic doctors used ὑστέρα, often in the plural, alongside μήτρα (mḗtrā); they pictured the womb as a vessel that could move about inside the body, and blamed it for a range of complaints in women.^[8][6] Aristotle extended the word to the ovary of birds, reptiles and fishes.^[6][4] The derived adjective ὑστερικός (husterikós) "of the womb, suffering in the womb" gave the European words for hysteria, because the illness was once thought to have its seat in the womb.^[4][8] Athenaeus plays on the word and the adjective ὑστέρα "the second (woman)".^[6] Modern Greek keeps υστέρα (ystéra) for the womb.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers use it for the womb.^[6][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the plural in the Timaeus.^[6][2]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the ovary of birds, reptiles and fishes.^[6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Soranus uses it in his treatise on gynaecology.^[6][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The womb, uterus, often in the plural.^[6][7]
2. The ovary of animals.^[6][2]

Word family

• ὑστερικός (husterikós)

Related words

• ὕστερος (hústeros)
• ὕδερος (húderos)
• Latin uterus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας